Private Wealth · Toronto · Est. 1962
Built over a lifetime.
Kept for generations.
Bespoke investment programs for Canada’s wealthiest families, foundations and institutions. Independent research. Senior people. No product of our own to sell.
The Guardian lineage
Guardian Partners is the private-wealth arm of Guardian Capital Group — founded in Toronto in 1962, and now part of Desjardins Group.
How we work
Judgment is our only product.
We manufacture no funds and earn nothing from what we recommend. Everything on this page follows from that.
Independent analysis
Research without an agenda
Managers and markets, judged on merit alone. When the analysis changes, so does the advice.
Customization
No model portfolios
Every mandate begins as a blank page — allocation, managers and risk built around your family. Never fit to a template.
Personal service
A senior team that knows you
You work directly with experienced principals, not a rotating cast. We stay through the decisions that matter.
Capabilities
What we take care of.
Five schedules of work, set out plainly — the way a family agreement would set them out.
Wealth accumulation & preservation
Comprehensive planning for families, foundations and business owners managing concentrated risk.
Legacy & wealth transfer
Multi-generational planning that prepares the next generation, not just the estate.
Tailored investment programs
Goal-based portfolios built through independent manager research — adjusted for your circumstances alone.
Analysis, reporting & oversight
Continuous monitoring and transparent reporting, so the plan keeps pace with your life.
Governance & family education
Structured education that lets stewardship be shared — and, in time, passed on.
How an engagement begins
Measured, from the first meeting.
No pitch. No product shelf. An engagement starts with listening — and proceeds only as fast as your confidence does.
A conversation
We meet to understand what you hold and what it must do for the people who depend on it. You do most of the talking.
The blank page
Our Strategies and Solutions Group drafts an investment policy from first principles — before a single manager is named.
The mandate
Allocation, managers, risk posture. Refined with you until it reads like something your family would sign.
The long term
Implementation, then oversight — and a standing invitation to question everything.
Team
The people behind the judgment.
The 13 senior practitioners you meet on day one are the people who manage your mandate.
Leadership
Anthony MessinaCPA, CA, CFA
President & Head of Private Wealth
Leads Guardian Partners’ private wealth business, formerly President & CEO of Worldsource Securities and Worldsource Financial Management. Earlier built I3 Advisors into the outsourced-CIO business that became BNY Mellon Wealth Management Canada.
Cameron RichardsJD, MBA, CFA
Chief Investment Officer, Multi-Asset Strategies & Solutions
Chairs the Guardian Partners Investment Committee and heads research. Formerly CIO of the Nova Scotia Health Employees’ Pension Plan and Head of Real Assets at Albourne Partners in London.
Frank MercuriCPA, CA
Chief Financial Officer
Oversees finance across Guardian Partners, Modern Advisor and Rae & Lipskie, and serves as Director of Finance for Guardian Capital Group. His career began at KPMG and TD Wealth.
Christina Forster PazienzaCPA, CA
Chief Compliance Officer, Wealth Management
Leads the wealth-management compliance program across Guardian affiliates. More than thirty years spanning public accounting, the Ontario Securities Commission and MFS Investment Management Canada.
Sergio Di Vito
Vice President, Operations
Thirty years of operations leadership across institutional and retail trading. A former board member and treasurer of the Institutional Equity Traders Association.
Investment Counsellors
Kimberly Hu AmadoriCFA
Vice President, Investment Counsellor
Advises ultra-high-net-worth families on complex portfolio strategy, having risen to Vice President at BNY Mellon WMAS. Co-founded Guardian Women™ and was named among Canada’s Top 50 Leading Women in Wealth.
Andrew DimockCFA
Vice President, Investment Counsellor
Works with ultra-high-net-worth individuals, family offices, foundations and institutions. Previously a Principal and Relationship Manager at Burgundy Asset Management.
Tracy ZhaoCFA
Vice President, Investment Counsellor
Fifteen-plus years across investment banking, institutional credit sales and portfolio management in Toronto and New York. Advises clients in English, French and Mandarin.
Alex LyonCFA
Investment Counsellor
Designs customized investment strategies for institutions and ultra-high-net-worth families. Joined Guardian in 2017 and grew into a senior counselling role.
Russell BraiveCIM
Associate Investment Counsellor
Supports institutional and family mandates after nearly a decade in the industry — Blair Franklin, Gluskin Sheff and Jarislowsky Fraser.
Research & Reporting
Payton LiuMA
Director, Investment Research
Focuses on manager selection and asset allocation within the Strategies and Solutions Group, after a decade at University of Toronto Asset Management. Published in the International Journal of Managerial Finance.
Neil CollinsCAIA, CIM, MFin
Director, Investment Research
Manager research and macroeconomic analysis, built on two decades across operations and consulting. Formerly Senior Consultant & ESG Lead at Aon.
Sophie Li
Supervisor, Performance & Client Reporting
Leads performance measurement and client reporting, having grown through operations and analytics roles since joining the firm in 2012.
Our conviction
Wealth of this kind is not managed quarter to quarter. It is stewarded — patiently, privately, and with nothing to sell but our judgment.
Insights
Thinking you can use.
Written for the decisions wealthy families actually face — not for headlines.
Featured series
The eldercare conversation
What to put in place before it’s urgent — capacity, care decisions, and the family conversations that make both easier.
Request the series
Contact
The next generation is our business plan.
A first conversation is exactly that — a conversation. Tell us what you are carrying, and we will tell you honestly whether we can help.
Toronto, Canada